Noob to Macs - Is this a good deal for 13" macbook

[Jintranet]

Hi there.

Someone locally is advertising selling the following for 900.00

Through the course of negotations i was able to talk him down to 700.00

consider the following when replying please.

I am a photographer and going to use it mainly for editing pictures.

In edition to the specs im listing for the macbook, the guy also says it contains a legitimate copy of Adobe CS4 Web Suite (over 1,000 in value) and that i can have the serial number to it, and it's completely legitimate and I may check with adobe on that.

It also comes installed with Iworks and Ilife whatever those are (mac newb here) although I'm completely versed in photoshop on Windows.

The specs are as follows.. and supposedly still has a few months warranty left from apple.

2 GHz Intel Core Duo Processor
2 GB RAM
100 GB Hard drive
CD/DVD burner
built in iSight camera
Wireless, bluetooth
2 USB ports, 1 Firewire
DVI out
OS X Leopard 10.5.6


Thank you in advance for your knowledgable replies

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I'm going for the 13" also specifically for the portability and ability to edit images in the field or on airplane rides home (i do some destination wedding shoots) so portability is huge for me.

 

[Tallest Skil]

mac2sell.com says $490.

Give him no more than $575. He's a cheat.

 

[r6girl]

It's not a Core 2 Duo, so that makes it one of the first-generation MacBooks. I have one of those to sell now since I've "upgraded" to a MacBook Air and I was expecting to get around $500 for it based on what I've seen in terms of prices here. He's asking way too much - definitely not a good deal.

 

[kolax]

Currency is sometimes useful, but I know you are talking U.S. Dollars

You should always check eBay for prices - $700 seems steep for a laptop that is almost a year old and it's warranty up.

Bit background info - iLife is a suite of applications that contains iPhoto (for consumer editing and just having a collection of photos in albums, organised etc), iMovie (for consumer editing of movies), iDVD for burning DVD's and iWeb for creating websites very easily, and finally GarageBand which is very powerful software for a consumer, and allows you to create your own music, record audio etc. Like Logic, Cubase, but consumer based yet very powerful too.

iWork contains Pages, Numbers and Keynote. Office equivalents are Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

And no way is the Adobe CS4 serial legal.

 

[Jintranet]

Currency is sometimes useful, but I know you are talking U.S. Dollars

You should always check eBay for prices - $700 seems steep for a laptop that is almost a year old and it's warranty up.

Bit background info - iLife is a suite of applications that contains iPhoto (for consumer editing and just having a collection of photos in albums, organised etc), iMovie (for consumer editing of movies), iDVD for burning DVD's and iWeb for creating websites very easily, and finally GarageBand which is very powerful software for a consumer, and allows you to create your own music, record audio etc. Like Logic, Cubase, but consumer based yet very powerful too.

iWork contains Pages, Numbers and Keynote. Office equivalents are Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

And no way is the Adobe CS4 serial legal.

Actually I live in Canada. So my prices arent american. I should have included that.

However. Assuming the Adobe suite was legitimate. I'd say that right there makes it worth the money. because if i wanted to buy that myself it'd cost 1400-1600 american. ouch.

I'll be sure to check for legitimate adobe activation since he says I can. assuming its legitimate i say that is reason enough to get it wouldnt it be?

 

[Tallest Skil]

However. Assuming the Adobe suite was legitimate...

I'll be sure to check for legitimate adobe activation since he says I can.

Which is also why we know that it isn't. No one is stupid enough to give away CS4 MC for FREE when they KNOW the retail price unless they STOLE it.

Master Collection, he said? Now, when you go to pirate something, are you going to pirate half of what you could get for free, or all of it? He got a pirated CS4 Master Collection and that's all there is to it.

Think for a second. What does he do for a living? Would he even be in a position to OWN it?

 

[Jintranet]

Which is also why we know that it isn't. No one is stupid enough to give away CS4 MC for FREE when they KNOW the retail price unless they STOLE it.

Master Collection, he said? Now, when you go to pirate something, are you going to pirate half of what you could get for free, or all of it? He got a pirated CS4 Master Collection and that's all there is to it.

Think for a second. What does he do for a living? Would he even be in a position to OWN it?

No. Not master collection

Adobe Web Suite. I know what pirated software is and how to check for it. He said he's a student and has the student priced / version and it allows him to re install it on another computer without deactivating on the old one.

I'm a newb to mac, not computers and software if the copy isn't legitimate I will not buy it.

 

[kolax]

However. Assuming the Adobe suite was legitimate. I'd say that right there makes it worth the money. because if i wanted to buy that myself it'd cost 1400-1600 american. ouch.

I'll be sure to check for legitimate adobe activation since he says I can. assuming its legitimate i say that is reason enough to get it wouldnt it be?

No no no.

Nobody throws in "freebies" - especially software that costs a bomb.

 

[Tallest Skil]

...has the student priced / version and it allows him to re install it on another computer without deactivating on the old one.

That makes absolutely no sense. Where on Adobe's EULA does it say that you can do that?

 

[kolax]

No. Not master collection

Adobe Web Suite. I know what pirated software is and how to check for it. He said he's a student and has the student priced / version and it allows him to re install it on another computer without deactivating on the old one.

I'm a newb to mac, not computers and software if the copy isn't legitimate I will not buy it.

Student software doesn't give you multiple keys.

 

[charliex5]

My wife and I are students and we both have MacBook Pros with a single copy of Adobe CS3 on them. I tried to install it on my MacBook as well but it can only be activated a total of 2 times. I would have to deactivate it on one of our computers to install it. I don't think that even how we have it on both our machines it technically legal because when I called support once the guy said I could put it on my main machine (ie. a mac pro) and if I had a secondary machine (ie. a macbook) I could put it on that for more mobile use.

You're also not supposed to use a student license for any commercial work, only for school related projects. This is why Adobe offers it for so much less.

So what this guy is suggesting is pretty durn illegal anyway you look at it.

 

[Jintranet]

My wife and I are students and we both have MacBook Pros with a single copy of Adobe CS3 on them. I tried to install it on my MacBook as well but it can only be activated a total of 2 times. I would have to deactivate it on one of our computers to install it. I don't think that even how we have it on both our machines it technically legal because when I called support once the guy said I could put it on my main machine (ie. a mac pro) and if I had a secondary machine (ie. a macbook) I could put it on that for more mobile use.

You're also not supposed to use a student license for any commercial work, only for school related projects. This is why Adobe offers it for so much less.

So what this guy is suggesting is pretty durn illegal anyway you look at it.

dang....... what a let down. guess ill have to pass and find a more recent macbook for a few hundred more and save my pennies for CS4.

 

[bozz2006]

+1 for illegal.

 

[Jintranet]

+1 for illegal.

Thank you guys for steering me away from the illegal road it would suck when i tried to upgrade that version to CS5 someday and got rejected and deactivated

 

[bozz2006]

happy to do it. It's actually very refreshing to encounter a shopper who is is turned off by the thought of acquiring illegal software. Good for you.

 

[jav6454]

You are a very good buyer. Researching before buying. I would agree nothing more that $550 USD is good price. However, the Adobe software is in now way legal, $1xxx software as a freebie is not believable. Besides, by the sound of how you wrote what he said, he sounds like eager to sell the MacBook also. Wouldn't surprise me if you find anything else with it.

 

[esadb]

i just got a blackbook about a month ago.

2ghz, CD,
1gb ram
60gb hd,
brand new battery and paid about 450$ for it.

700 seems a bit steep

 

[Buskape]

i just got a blackbook about a month ago.

2ghz, CD,
1gb ram
60gb hd,
brand new battery and paid about 450$ for it.

700 seems a bit steep

Wow where do you find those deals? I'd be glad to buy one too for that price! I checked ebay.com and nothing comes close, the cheapest MacBook is a whitebook core duo 80gb hard drive for 699$ US

 

[MacHappytjg]

if he doesnt buy it, reguardless somones going to buy it for that price i could sell my imac g5 for $650np even tho mac2sell.com (bs) says its worth 475, but yea if u can find one for cheaper go for it. Cause 700 is a bit to much espically with those specs.

 

[goldfronts]

I love when sellers try to give you that "sweet deal" on the software that they're selling the computer with

 

[chocolaterabbit]

it seems like an ok deal, considering that it's the student edition of cs4, and not the $1100 version as quoted. However, if he doesn't delete the copy on his computer, then it's illegal for you. So either he deletes his copy, or you negotiate a lower price without cs4.